A Haruno Ignored
by Steavatron
Summary: A young, pink haired girl wakes up and realises that all the time she spent chasing her ebony haired prince was wasted. In the thick woods of wave country, she makes a decision that will change the rest of her life. Haruno Sakura, is going to retire from the shinobi program.
1. Chapter 1

**AN: New story. My second fic. please let me know what you think. Also, check out my other one.**

Konohagakure no Sato

Sakura smiled softly as she got ready for the day. She hummed a tune to herself as she brushed her long pink hair. The bathroom mirror she was looking in showed off it's luxurious looking sheen and she smiled a little wider in appreciation. She closed her eyes and breathed in deeply to take in the pungent strawberry scent. ' _Mmmmmm. I gotta admit, even if I regretted my choice, this shampoo would make it all worth it._ ' She opened her eyes and nodded to herself when she noticed she was done.

The teal eyed girl put away the brush and strolled out of the bathroom. She walked down the hall of her large, penthouse apartment and entered the living room. She looked at all the high quality furniture and all the expensive decorations she had acquired over the years and smiled once more. ' _Regrets. Pfft, yeah right._ ' She picked up her keys from their place on the wall and made her way to the waiting elevator.

She pressed the ground button and waited as the familiar music started to play. She was still pondering how the three years had changed so much for her and whether or not she really regretted any of it. Thinking about her change, most would say it began just after their first C rank mission to the land of Waves, but she knew it had begun much earlier than that. Although the thoughts had been in her mind for much longer, the Wave mission had been the one to really push her into action.

* * *

When she believed Sasuke had died, she had obviously been grief stricken, but the thing that she hadn't expected was feeling lost. She had felt a sense of purposelessness that had shook her to her very core. She just didn't know what she would do now that her crush was dead. He had been her entire reason for being a ninja at the time, her entire reason for living even. She hadn't thought much about her future, other than the fact that she'd be by his side when it was time to revive the Uchiha clan. His 'death' had left her so broken and utterly confused that it had terrified her.

When he had rejoined the world of the living though, the soothing relief and calmness she had felt had also unsettled her. She regained her sense of purpose and her drive to go on, but the fact that his mere breathing had done so much to inspire such a reaction in her had kind of scared her. It showed her that her life pretty much revolved around him and his actions. These thoughts weren't really given much time to solidify, as they were overshadowed by the sheer joy she felt as she knelt by him, waiting for him to recover. It was short lived as soon as he awoke, because the joy she took in that fact was muddied by the fact that he didn't really seem to care about her. He was glad to be alive and quite affected when she told him that Naruto had defeated Haku, but he didn't even seem to notice the inner turmoil she'd just been through.

For the pink haired girl, this had been the straw that broke the camel's back. She had quietly endured rejection after rejection and dismissal after dismissal for many years now and though it had been painful, she had been confident that her efforts were being recognised, and soon he'd acknowledge her as the one he cherished above all else.

She had held onto that and kept believing that someday, and someday soon, he'd show her that he'd been paying attention all this time and that he would take her in his arms and choose her over Ino. Seeing him completely ignore the intense shattering she'd just experienced drove home the fact that he really didn't care about her. He really did find her to be unworthy of her time and beneath his notice. She was just one of the teammates that would slow him down in his ambition. More than Naruto even.

She had tried to ignore these thoughts and even tried to justify the actions behind them when they wouldn't go away, but she couldn't run from the truth any longer. Uchiha Sasuke held nothing but disdain for her in his heart. She had been more subdued during the rest of the trip. Naruto had noticed right away and he'd badgered her to tell him why, promising to beat the snot out of whoever had made her sad. That nice Tsunami woman had also noticed and had let her know that if she ever needed someone to talk to, that she'd make herself available. Even Kakashi-sensei and the rest of Tsunami's family had noticed, handling her much more carefully than usual and being even more nice to her. The 'love of her life' however, had barely given her a raised eyebrow, much less even enquired about her well being. He had spent every moment, as soon as he had recovered, training himself to exhaustion in an effort to be faster and to master his newly awoken sharingan.

Every minute he didn't need to be on duty at the bridge, he spent in the clearing where they had learn't how to tree walk. Kakashi sensei had given her a brief explanation on the water walking exercise to cheer her up or at least take her mind off of things and she'd been grateful. The time she spent away from her teammates, in the quiet embrace of nature, had really been helpful in that she had a lot of time to herself to really think things through.

She thought about her life, and all she had accomplished so far. She thought about all the things she wanted to do and noticed that most of it gravitated around the Uchiha. That fact had annoyed her more than she had expected. It made her then decide to take stock of her life, and eradicate everything that she was doing solely for his sake. The first thing she'd thought about was her career.

She couldn't really remember the reason she had initially wanted to be a ninja, probably so that she wouldn't be bullied now that she thought about it, but now, her reason for staying in the profession had been because Sasuke was a ninja and he would only want a kunoichi to restart the Uchiha clan with. She tried to ponder whether or not she had any real reason of her own to remain a ninja and she had come up short.

In all honesty, all the fighting, blood and potential loss of life scared her. This mission had shown her that as a ninja, she'd never be certain that she'd live to see the next day, let alone take the next breath. It showed her that all the things they were told in the academy about the dangers for kunoichi were real. It had highlighted the fact that she couldn't handle this for the rest of her life. She couldn't live with the fact that anyone she cared about could lose their life at any moment and there would be nothing she could do about it.

The thoughts refused to leave her for a whole day and by that evening, she was resolute in her decision. Haruno Sakura was going to quit the shinobi program. With those overly dramatic thoughts out of the way, she had felt lighter and more carefree than she ever had. She felt happy with her decision and knew her parents would also be ecstatic about her choosing to become a civilian. There was one thing she'd miss though, and that was Chakra.

Chakra made so many things so much easier for ninja than civilians. Travel was much less taxing on shinobi and much faster too. Chakra let them do things that even civilians would find useful, like walking on vertical or even upside-down surfaces, or being strong enough to lift things much more than any regular muscles could lift.

She had lamented the fact that chakra was pretty much an ninja only thing and no civilians made use of it, until she thought about the fact that few civilians had felt the added benefits of chakra and thus, had never really felt that they were missing anything. The ones that had seen shinobi in action had probably only seen them do massively destructive feats and those that had seen the useful techniques had probably assumed that they were horribly difficult to learn.

She had also decided then that she'd keep using chakra and find ways of making her life easier and more fun with the gift. That evening, when she had confessed her decision to her team, she had felt the need to tell Naruto beforehand and deal with his loud and annoying outbursts in private.

"Hey, Sakura-chan. What's up? Did you invite me to this clearing to tell me how much of a hero I was 'cause I beat Haku and the teme couldn't?" He asked, eyes lit up excitedly.

"No, Naruto, I didn't." She said somberly. Usually she'd have taken a deep pleasure in the way his expression fell at the admission, but the genuine concern in his expression and the fact that her feelings about Sasuke were still raw dulled the cheeriness in the moment. She forced herself to perk up a little and continued, "Naruto, I just wanted to tell you about a really important decision I've made, and it starts with how I felt when I was sure Sasuke was dead on that bridge."

His eyes seemed to narrow at the way she now said his name, but due to the overall confusion he felt, caused by the whole situation at large, he just decided to nod and listen, and hopefully he'd be able to make sense of it by the time she wanted a response.

She continued, You know how I always used to say I loved Sasuke?" She questioned, seeing the way his eyes continued to narrow as she kept talking. "Well, I really felt devastated when I thought he died." She noticed him blink a few times in genuine confusion when he realised that this was not the way he thought the conversation was going to go. "When he was laying there, and I couldn't feel a pulse, I felt like I was dying. I felt like someone had stabbed me through the heart, but above all that, I felt so confused." She saw his lips turn down in distaste.

Naruto felt the frown he was feeling show on his face at Sakura-chan's words show as she spoke. He was really hurt by the fact that it seemed like she came to him to vent her pain, and then let him know just how happy she was when she found out that her precious teme was alive. He felt a brief flicker of anger at the Uchiha who spurned the affections of the girl he himself heard in such high regard, but he couldn't deny the fact that she was here talking to him about it. He felt a little satisfaction at the fact that she came to him with her problems, but it withered and died at the thought that she only did it so she could rub in the fact that she doesn't love him, knowing that he loved her. He nodded and let her continue though, he'd been a part of enough misunderstandings and he really didn't want to ruin things with Sakura-chan over something that may be just in his thoughts.

"I really felt heartbroken. I had no idea what to do. I...I…felt like my whole life was falling apart, Naruto." She felt tears start to prickle her eyes as she remembered the pain. "I felt like… like there was nothing left for me here. I was almost ready to...to…" she trailed off and burst into tears when his eyes widened understanding what she was about to say.

Naruto didn't really know what came over him. He just saw the tears falling from her eyes and his body had frozen on instinct. "Sakura-chan." He breathed, lost for any other words. He really didn't know what to say, growing up as he had, he just knew that he really hated seeing the pain on her face. It tore at him in a way he couldn't even begin to explain... "Do...don't cry." he whispered,lost for anything else to say.

The pink haired girl sniffled and gathered herself, drying her tears with the back of her hand. She smiled sadly as she continued. "When he woke up though, I felt really happy." *sniffle. "I felt like the part of my heart that had just been ripped out was falling back into place again." She paused and took a shuddering breath. "Naruto, I...I felt whole again." She saw his face morph from distressed to melancholy at her words. "I...I felt...like all was right in the world...Like balance had been restored and I was so happy." She saw his face start to take on a sour tone and decided she'd been going on for long enough. "Naruto, that scared me." She said, bringing her arms to wrap around each other and noting the way his face scrunched up in confusion. "I was pretty much ready to die when I thought Sasuke was dead, and when I found out he wasn't, I felt like all was right in the world. I realised that my whole life was centered around Sasuke and that I don't want it to be." Here, his grin burst back to life in full force as the conversation returned to the direction he originally thought it was going to take.

' _Ahh yes. Finally! Now that Sakura-chan has acknowledged that the teme is a prick with a whole barn up his rear, she's chosen to go out on a date with me. This'll be awesome. I can take her to Ichiraku's and we can have ramen, and then we can…_ ' his thoughts trailed off when he realised that she was waiting for him with an expectant look on her face. "uh...I'm sorry, what?"

"Yes, I _have_ fallen out of love with Sasuke, but I haven't come here to 'bask in your mighty awesomeness' and get you to take me on a date." She intoned dryly.

"Wha!" He face faulted at the spot on prediction. When he righted himself, he questioned her, "What are you talki-. How did you know?" He started to lie, then switched to the truth when she gave him a bored look.

"Outside of battle, you're really predictable. You don't think about anything other than ramen, me and the Hokage's chair. It really wasn't that hard to guess how you'd react at this point."

His mouth dropped open to loudly voice his disagreement, but then Sakura seemed to nod to herself and settle in to wait. He realised that she'd thought about it and anticipated his blowing up at her. His mouth clicked shut wordlessly and she nodded again, still one step ahead of him. He frowned when he thought about that and resolved to think about it...at some point.

"Right. Now, what I came to tell you is that I don't want to be a ninja anymore." She held up a finger to stall his protests and continued, "Don't speak. I want you to think about it and later tonight, when I tell everyone else about it, I want you to tell me all the reasons that _I_ could possibly want to be a ninja." She continued on, answering his unasked question, "Why am I doing it this way? I want you to learn to think Naruto. If you don't, one day you'll come up against someone or something that can't be beaten by throwing clones and determination at it. When that happens, I want you to be able to think through the situation."

He closed his mouth and nodded his acquiescence. "Sakura-chan. I...I have some questions though." He paused to see her response and finished when she nodded. "Why did you tell me now. Why didn't you tell Kakashi-sensei first?"

"Oh." She blinked. "Well that's easy, I'm gonna tell everyone else tonight. Kakashi-sensei will understand. He'll probably just ask me to make sure I'm sure by the time we get back to the village. Sasuke will probably just make that weird noise he makes and say that at least I won't be slowing him down anymore. Tsunami and her family will probably encourage me and tell me it's for the best, that little girls shouldn't be learning how to kill this young anyway. I told you first because If you found out with everyone else, you'd think everyone else was trying to make me quit and you'd fight it all the way back to Konoha." She finished.

He gaped in slight confusion and was about to speak out at her, but he stopped short and thought about it. He found out that she was right. Running the situation through his head, he figured that exactly that would've happened if Sakura-chan hadn't decided to have this conversation with him. He swallowed when he realised that he couldn't afford to keep being so thoughtless. If he'd been up against enemy ninja and they were able to predict his every move like this, then they could make him do whatever they wanted. He could never be elected Hokage with such predictability. No one would trust him to lead when he could be controlled so easily. He resolved to actually think on it some more later and moved on to his last question. "Okay, So...what are you gonna do now? Are you gonna go to.." His face scrunched up, "...a _regular_ high school?"

"I don't know about that yet. I'll talk to my mom and see if she can help me out with the future stuff. For now though, I just know I don't want to do this anymore. I'll still be friends with you guys though."

"Well, I can't say I agree with your choice, Sakura-chan, but if the ninja life isn't making you happy, then I'm glad you're getting out of it." He turned and threw his arms behind his head as he walked towards the path back to the small house. "Come on, I heard Tsunami say that dinner's almost ready." Sakura smiled softly and followed after him.

* * *

 **AN: So… for all those who saw that I had updated and were hoping that my other story had gotten a new chapter...sorry. I'm gonna get right on that and you should hopefully have another chapter by Tuesday. Hopefully.**

 **Anyway, please leave a review and check out my other story. Also, I may add another couple thousand words to this chapter in case anything's unclear.**

 **Later…**


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: Wow. This has more followers than 'The Price of Ignorance.' I only posted this yesterday. Please let me know what I can do to the summary of the other story to make it a little more interesting. It has like 3000 words more and it's been up for close to a month now. I'm kinda shocked, honestly. Well anyway, here's the next chapter.**

Chapter 2

Naruto sat at the dinner table with his head down. His normally spiked up hair was hanging down and casting shade over his face. He pushed his food around his plate, not feeling much of an appetite. He had been shocked by Sakura's admission earlier today, and he'd committed to trying his best and making sure that he'd come up with at least one good reason for his pink haired teammate to stay in the program. The more he'd thought about it though, the more he'd felt that her decision was the right one. ' _Right now, there's really no good reason for her to be in the program. I'm gonna get the old man's job, so I need to be here. Sasuke-teme wants to kill some guy, so he needs to get stronger, but Sakura-chan...she really has no reason to be here...She gets all the acknowledgement she needs, she has nobody to protect or to avenge, she really should be a civilian._ '

When he had these thoughts, he had tried to deny it and find something, _anything,_ that would be a good reason for her to stay in the program, to stay on their team, but he'd come up short. He really didn't like that fact but the evidence was laid out in front of him.

He looked up just as everyone else looked at him. He'd been listening with one ear open and Sakura was right. Everyone had reacted pretty much as expected. Kakashi-sensei told her to be sure, Sasuke-teme said he was glad she wouldn't slow him down, and Tsunami had said it was for the best. The way everyone else looked at him showed that they all thought he was about to do exactly what Sakura had prevented.

He took a breath and spoke lowly, "I...think it's for the best." He could see the surprise on each of their faces, even his teacher couldn't bite down on his shock enough to hide the widening of his one eye. Sasuke raised a brow and gave him a look, but promptly went back to his meal. Tsunami looked like she wanted to say something, but apparently decided against it and got up to clear the table. "Let me help." He said, getting up and picking up his plate. He just wanted to be clear of the strange looks he was getting.

"Thank you, dear." The woman replied dumbly, stunned by the complete change in his behavior. She walked into the Kitchen and started to fill the sink. Once the table was clear, he followed her in and told her he'd do the dishes. He just wanted to have some time with his thoughts, but he didn't want to risk falling asleep in the woods again. She had accepted and walked upstairs to go to bed.

He created a clone and stood at the sink, he would wash, and it would dry. He made a third one puff into existence so it could put away all the dishes. He grabbed a plate and started to scrub. After a few minutes his thoughts had begun to circle and he decided it wouldn't hurt to fill the silence.

* * *

Sasuke lay awake in his bed thinking about what had happened today. He hadn't been able to progress any further with his sharingan and he still only had two tomoe in one eye and one in the other. He was starting to think that it was something that could only be developed by life and death battles and not by training.

He had made good progress in his speed training though. He'd spent most of the past days sprinting up and down the trees and also heightening his reflexes by setting up delayed traps to fire kunai and shuriken at him. His sharingan had allowed him to pretty much avoid getting any bruises at all.

He'd also felt his chakra capacity slowly increasing. He could probably squeeze out one more fireball than he could before. It was progress and it was slow, but he was certain it would pick up when they returned to Konoha and Kakashi had enough time to teach them without having to hold back for Sakura. He only hoped the dobe's attitude tonight meant that he was finally starting to realise how stupid his dream of being Hokage was and he'd follow the fangirl's example. An apprentice always got more training time than a team after all.

* * *

Sakura was also awake at the time. She was just coming out of the bathroom, having felt the need to take a relaxing bath. She'd seen Tsunami's assortment of bath salts and bottles of bubble bath and she'd been really tempted to ask for permission. She didn't need to be stealthy and undetectable anymore, since she'd no longer be a ninja and this mission was pretty much over, but she'd held back because she still had a hitai ate, and for as long as she was still considered a kunoichi, she'd continue to act like one.

She slipped out of her dress and into her frilly nightie, liking the way the smooth material felt against her skin. She climbed into the bed and tucked herself in. She sighed contentedly as she felt the warmth of the covers and was thankful that they hadn't had to sleep in tents for this mission. As her eyelids started to droop, she couldn't help but feel as if her life had taken the best possible turn and that things were looking up.

* * *

A few hours later

Sakura yawned as she descended the stairs. She had just taken a bath and she was about to help herself to some breakfast when she heard something going on downstairs. She walked in and heard some muttered conversation coming from the kitchen.

She palmed a kunai and walked in cautiously, her footsteps being nigh inaudible. She gave the door a gentle push and stopped dead in her tracks at the scene before her. Naruto was sitting at the table, a look of intense concentration on his face as he pondered his next move on the shogi board before him. The strangest part was that the whispered conversation she had been hearing had been coming from the three replicas of her teammate sitting across from him. They all turned to face her and smiled, "Morning, Sakura-chan." They chorused, and she was struck by how creepy it sounded. She could've also sworn she was greeted by the board between the teammates smiling at her.

"Morning." She replied dumbly, not really sure how else she could respond to this sight.

"You're wondering why we're playing shogi, why there's only one clone that side, and where we got the board, right?" A clone from the group questioned, making it clear that he was actually looking for a response.

"Yeah," She nodded cautiously, "and also, if you've been up all night."

"Che." He scowled. "I was so close." He perked up again and seemed to have gotten over it already when he continued, "Well, last night, I was talking to my clones about your decision," He saw her skeptical face and put up a finger, "Don't ask, and then we kinda got off topic and started talking about how muscles are enhanced by chakra and how it would be awesome if you could do the same with your brain." He saw her eyes widen and nodded to himself, "Yup. I tried it and I found that I could think faster and about a lot more things at once. I really don't wanna be the stupidest person in the room anymore Sakura-chan. So I made a bunch of clones and had them henge into shogi pieces and a board and then made a clone to play with." He pointed to the solitary clone opposite him and continued, "He's using the chakra brain thing," The clone waved, "...and I made these two so we could discuss our strategy. When I thought about the brain chakra thing, it was because we were in a group, so I made these guys so that I can compete against him."

She nodded accepting his logic and asked, "So...any progress?"

"Yup." He beamed at her and showed her the tally sheet next to him. Early on, he was losing continuously to the clone, but over time the three of them had started to best him more and more until their score was all tied up.

"Oh." She blinked in surprise at seeing the speedy way he was progressing. "Well I'm glad you're improving, Naruto." She gave him a smile and he returned it. She then turned to reach into the cabinet and grabbed some cereal when a thought struck her. "Wait, isn't the brain really delicate? Don't you need, like, medic level chakra control?"

"Huh?" He replied eloquently, having been thoroughly sucked into his game.

She turned and pulled a bowl out of the cabinet. "To augment your brain with chakra… Don't you need to have seriously good chakra control?" She moved over to the cutlery drawer and picked up a spoon. "I mean, the brain _is_ a really delicate organ." She turned again to take some milk from the fridge and missed the way his eyes darted left and right anxiously.

"Um, yeah….He he…. I kinda….passed out a couple of times. Yeah. I have it on good authority that a regular person would've died." His eyes darted left and right once more but she was focused on pouring her cereal. ' _Good authority. Pfft. Yeah right. Like I'd tell her that the fox chewed me out for nearly dying a few times._ '

She nodded as she sat at the table to enjoy her meal. "You should be more careful."

"Yeah, I know." He replied. A couple of seconds went by where he debated whether to tell her or not, then he figured she'd be a civilian soon and she had no reason to use it against him. "Hey, Sakura-chan, can you keep a secret?"

She raised a questioning eyebrow and answered. "Naruto, you know I'm quitting this line of work right." Seeing his confusion, she elaborated. "I thought about it long and hard yesterday, about how a ninja would actually be allowed to retire. I figured we have the best system in Konoha. They are probably gonna get a Yamanaka to find out whether I know anything of importance and seal those memories." Seeing understanding dawn on him, she finished. "It better not be something that'll screw up my retirement."

He nodded and confirmed. "Yeah, it's not. You don't have to worry about that. I was thinking back to all my battles, you know, so that I could see if anyone played me like you did yesterday." She frowned at his wording and he raised a hand to stall her protests. "I know that's not how you meant it, but that's how it felt. Anyway, I thought back to all the fights and one thing stood out." He smiled widely and she knew he had some massive bomb he was about to drop. "In the battle against Zabuza, I remembered hengeing into a fuma shuriken and being thrown to Sasuke," He paused for dramatic effect,"and I also remembered throwing a fuma shuriken to Sasuke." He smirked at her and waited for her response.

She rolled her eyes at him as she munched on her cereal. "Naruto, just tell me. It's too early in the morning for mind games."

He pouted at having his fun ruined but he continued anyway, "I remembered two separate versions of the same fight. I remembered what _I_ did…" He trailed off and smiled when her eyes widened.

"...and what your clone did." She muttered dumbly. "Naruto! Do you have any idea how useful this could be!" She yelled. He winced and she slapped her hands over her mouth.

"...Yeah. I do actually. And that's why it's a _secret_." He replied, once his ears stopped ringing.

She winced and thought about how ironic it was that this had happened. "Sorry." She muttered.

He waved her off and told her his reasoning. "You were able to predict all my actions because you know me." He tapped the side of his head, "Iruka sensei was right when he said that knowledge is a ninja's best weapon." He pointed to the bookshelf in the lounge, visible through the open door and smirked. "I've 'read' all the books in there already."

Her eyes widened at his words. "Impressive." She knew from the look in his eye that he was itching to get back to Konoha and take advantage of the shinobi library. She frowned though, when a thought occurred to her. "So, what? You're never gonna let anyone get to know the real you?" She questioned, saddened by the thought of a secretive and manipulative Naruto.

"No no no. I'm just never going to let anyone know enough to be able to control my actions like that." He gained a really hurt look. "That felt...it….I couldn't….Yeah….I've got no words for just how I felt yesterday."

She stood, taking her empty bowl to the sink as she answered. "I'm sorry you felt that way, Naruto, but I'm glad you're gonna think from now on."

He grinned and nodded at her. "Yeah. I've even filled up the local library. Ahhhhh, the henge is a wonderful thing. I should actually be done with it by the time we have to leave." He announced.

"Wow." She blinked, impressed by how much he'd already done. "I gotta say, Naruto, I'm really impressed. You're really serious about this, aren't you?"

"You bet. At first I didn't like the fact that it wouldn't be awesome jutsus, but really thinking about it, brains are a lot more useful to a ninja than brawns." He nodded to himself and continued. "Thanks, Sakura-chan. I really appreciate what you did for me."

She smiled as she answered. "No problem, Naruto. I'll let you get back to your game."

He nodded and turned back to his game, intent on beating his clone this time.

* * *

 **AN: Well I hope you liked that. I myself am not sure if you will. If you guys just wanna see more of Sakura and how she deals with things, let me know. Also, I don't always update the day after I post a chapter. Just so you know.**


	3. Chapter 3

AN: Wow. It seems like the summary for this story is a lot better than I thought. 500 views in 2 days. I love the support. Thanks guys.

Chapter 3

Sakura smiled softly as she stopped on the hill where Zabuza and Haku were buried. She could see the almost completely orange form of the bridge where her hyperactive teammate was helping out. And by _helping out_ , she meant abusing the living hell out of the kage bunshin technique to get as much experience as he could. He had taken to the theory that he had a lot of catching up to do when it came to acquiring knowledge, so he decided to rectify that as soon as possible…. By badgering her and literally _everyone else_ on the island on everything they knew. He pestered anyone and everyone, and he'd come to her to get her to spill her guts about all she knew about chakra and anything even remotely ninja related, almost to the point where she would've been happy if he'd have gone back to hounding her over the prospect of dating.

She had indulged him because she had nothing better to do now that he was hogging all the mission duties. Sasuke was actually grateful, though the raven haired boy would torch anyone who even hinted at as much. He had felt that he would make insane amounts of progress with all the extra time, but when that didn't happen, he took to granting Kakashi-sensei the chance to help him out… because Uchihas don't _ask_ for help. On his part, Kakashi-sensei had been thankful, and he'd intended to spend the free time relaxing, and enjoying that infernal book of his, but one can only read the same smutty garbage (read: Icha Icha) over and over for so long before they start to go a little mental. Since Wave had been in a little bit of an economic crisis at the time, they didn't have any of the newer books on their shelves, so when the opportunity had presented itself, he had jumped at the chance to train Sasuke.

She had briefly wondered why her golden haired teammate had come to her instead of Kakashi-sensei for knowledge on all thing ninja but she'd brushed it off as unimportant. Once she had told him all she knew about chakra and the ninja world, he'd thanked her profusely and proceeded to start practicing some of the chakra control exercises that she'd mentioned. When she'd asked, he'd said that when he'd made so many clones to swarm the village and drain it of all it's knowledge, he'd finally been able to feel the chakra draw of the jutsu. He estimated that it split his chakra equally between all his clones. He had thought about what Kakashi-sensei had said about her having small reserves and thus, better control, and he was going to enhance his control by doing the same thing. Shrinking his reserves.

She shook her head in amusement at his antics. The pink haired girl's smile softened a little when she remembered her purpose for being up on this hill. She'd come to find a quiet place to think, away from her blonde teammate. Although he was much less impulsive now thanks to the talk they had, the large groups of clones taking cooking lessons from Tsunami or the multiple classes learning fishing and carpentry basics from _Inari-sensei_ were starting to be a little distracting. ' _Honestly, the blonde had said the words_ one time _and the power had shot straight to the little tyke's head. He'd donned a formal kimono, a fake moustache and everything._ '

Her eyes fell to the two graves before her and her smile became more melancholy. She briefly pondered how Naruto had become so very attached to the false hunter nin that he'd believed they deserved a burial. She'd seen the way he'd pretty much brought 'The Demon of The Mist' to tears, and wasn't that a strange thought, and she could appreciate that hearing Zabuza say he cared for Haku, and then him giving his life to avenge the memory of the kind hearted ice user was a pretty good reason to give _him_ a burial. But she couldn't think of why in the world they had also buried his apprentice.

She shook her head once more and focused her thoughts back on why she came here. She'd wanted time to actually think about what she'd do when they had to return to the village. After returning her hitai ate and her shinobi registration card, she'd be a civilian again, and only a twelve year old one at that. They would probably take away the rights she'd had to be treated as an adult and they'd make her go to one of those regular high schools.

She tilted her head and tried imagining what going to regular classes and attending a normal school would be like, but she was kinda surprised by the fact that she couldn't. She didn't really have an idea of what civilians actually _did_ in school. Her parents were merchants and whenever they, she shuddered, 'regaled the tales of their youth', it was always stories about what the wild parties they went to were like, or the mischief they got up to. She remembered her mom briefly telling her something about a class where they learnt about ninjas and their contribution to the elemental nations as a whole, but other than that she couldn't think of anything.

She shrugged as she thought, ' _Well, I guess I'll just have to find out when I get there._ ' She walked a little ways away from the graves and sat down with her legs stretched out in front of her. She breathed in the scent of the salty seaside air and smiled as she looked down at the waters between her and the bridge.

She had mastered the water walking exercise and she'd been more than happy to teach it to Naruto. The boy, of course, had no restraint and had thanked her and thrown about twenty clones at it. He'd mastered it even quicker than she had. The sheer effectiveness of that technique was almost scary to her. She'd estimated that the exercise would've taken him at least a week, maybe two even. She just shook her head fondly and decided to be happy that her teammate could find something that was unique to him. She frowned when she thought about the fact that she'd be the first to admit to finding that whole 'empower the brain with chakra' thing annoying. The orange clad genin had developed a habit of nodding to himself after you've finished a statement to him, as if he had anticipated you saying something like that. He had gotten almost freakishly accurate at it as of late and had pretty much just stopped nodding altogether. She felt a brief flicker of concern at the fact that she may have created a monster, but then caught herself when she remembered who she was thinking about. ' _That idi-,'_ she blinked, ' _Naruto doesn't have a single malicious bone in his body._ '

As she got bored of sitting and appreciating the sun, she turned her thoughts to her other teammate. She wished she could say that she'd gotten over her feelings for him, that even if he told her that he wanted her to be his, she'd still be firm in her decision, but she couldn't. A part of her, and an admittedly large part at that, knew that she would probably change her mind if he had even hinted at the fact that he'd miss her. That part was devastated that he hadn't but the logical part that realised that there was nothing of any value for her in this line of work was grateful. She appreciated the fact that it allowed her to make a decision of her own for once. She had been bullied into becoming a shinobi and her crazy teenage hormones had made her throw away a perfectly good friendship for the _love_ of an _avenger,_ but now she'd be the one to make this life-changing decision all on her own.

Sure it was only going back on a decision she'd made prior, but she'd take what she could get.

She hummed contentedly as she lay on her back and decided to relax a little. She breathed in as she noticed the cloudless sky. ' _This would totally be Shikamaru's worst nightmare._ ' Her eyes widened when she realised that she hadn't considered how anyone else would react. She'd thought about her team, her parents and a small family that she'd only just met for the first time, but not the classmates she'd spent the past five years with. She briefly thought about what kind of friend that made her, and then winced when the answer was, 'an awful one.'

She realised that she really had been a bad friend if she didn't even consider how they'd be affected by this change in her life. She resolved to take a page out of Naruto's book and decided to be more thoughtful. She knew that they were _waaaaay_ ahead of schedule and their paid vacation would be over soon, so she spent the rest of that afternoon relaxing in various nooks around Wave.

* * *

The original Naruto looked on approvingly at the scene before him. He was standing high up in a tree not far from the cave Zabuza and Haku had made thier beds in for their stay in the land of Waves. He'd happened upon their little alcove earlier on when he was looking for the mansion Gatou had called home. What he was looking at was the massive residence in the distance, where the multitude of clones he'd made was currently 'confiscating' a large amount of Gatou's property.

He smiled as he thought about how a few days ago, such an action would've been unthinkable to him. He wouldn't even have considered what would've happened to the money after the people of Wave were reimbursed. Because Gatou was the leader of a transport company, he didn't just deal with the people of Wave, but with a whole slew of other nations and private organisations. This was the money the clones were taking.

Naruto hadn't even had this idea on his own. He had the villagers of wave to thank for that. Most of the clones he'd sent to the library on the final reading day hadn't dispelled immediately after finishing their task, but had left the library to experience a few of the things the small town has to offer. When they talked to the people though, they were greeted differently. The people were willing to share different things with who they thought were fellow citizens and not outsiders.

Naruto had found out that a lot of the people were afraid that the bandits would return when the ninja left to reclaim what remained in Gatou's mansion, or to merely take it back from the people themselves. There were also people who had admitted to having plans to clean out the mansion on thir own and one man had even told a clone that he was thinking about taking Zabuza's sword to a bounty office so he could claim the bounty on the jonin's head. When Naruto had remembered that Kakashi had told them that hunter nins usually took something of significance to be able to confirm the kill to their superiors, he'd realised that it wouldn't be very difficult for one of the villagers here to make a killing off of their efforts.

He had really found the information useful and he'd already made plans on how to remedy the situations. He planned to have a clone take the sword and hand it in, and when all of Gatou's valuables were safely hidden away the clones would find the remaining bandits and make sure they wouldn't be the cause of any more problems. The real treasure, he believed, was the fact that he'd now found out the best way of gaining information. With the way he hadn't even been looking for any info and it had fallen right into his lap, he decided that he really needed to have an ear in every nook and cranny if he was going to be the best. What better way to get something you want than having the person who has it freely give it you without even realising it.

He smiled at the thought that as soon as he could find a way to sneak his clones past the senses of an experienced ninja, there would be a flood of 'refugees' checking in to all the shinobi _and_ civilian villages around the elemental nations. He was sure that each of the villages would just assume the whole of the wave population would've moved to theirs and wouldn't bother to check in with any other villages. He did realise that he'd need to seriously increase his chakra capacity before he could even consider giving his clones the nod, but he was confident that between the library, the fox and an overly large scroll he only got to enjoy a few short hours with, he could find some way to pull it off.

He frowned though when he thought about how he was training to keep his clones from blowing their cover to a trained ninja. He was taking every lesson he'd learnt from Sakura about the various types of ninja and he was focused on the sensor type for this particular training exercise. He had his clones trying to sneak up on Kakashi with their chakra suppressed, and so far, it was getting better and better each time. The distance at which Kakashi would sense them was getting shorter and shorter. Oh, the jounin was good, he certainly didn't really seem to have a visible reaction at first glance, but when you had about twenty pairs of eyes all watching for the slightest twitch, it became all but impossible for almost any shinobi to hide their reaction. Include the fact that all the clones watching him were enhancing their brains with chakra and were perceiving his actions at a truly ungodly frame rate, then it really wasn't a surprise the man's well hidden tells might as well have been broadcasted to the blonde.

The reason for his frown was that he didn't really have a high opinion of Hatake Kakashi at the moment. He couldn't even stand referring to the man as sensei anymore. When he'd been thinking back to all the fights he'd had, he'd thought about the fight with Kakashi at the bell test and he remembered the boredom on his face. The only thing he'd done that day that'd surprised Kakashi was the sheer number of clones he could pump out. Kakashi had read him like a book and cleaned his clock, but the offending action was the lack thereof. The silver haired man had given him no correction, no giudance, hell, he'd even have appreciated having the lesson _beaten_ into him if that's what it would've taken.

No such luck.

The man who was supposed to be his 'sensei' didn't even tell him that being so utterly one dimensional would be his downfall. He didn't even outline that if any enemy knew him even half as well as Sakura did, he'd be able to kill him 8 ways to sunday. The most infuriating thing was that on this mission, after they encountered the demon brothers, Kakashi knew they'd only meet tougher ninja from that point and he had said nothing. He allowed Naruto to continue the mission, knowing full well that he was pretty much sending the blonde off to his naive and gullible death. Naruto couldn't stand that thought and he couldn't stand his sensei either. This betrayal was almost worse than Mizuki-teme's. The'd both used his naivete to give him just enough rope to hang himself with, Kakashi had just wanted to keep his job afterwards, so he'd been smarter about it. It was actually starting to make him think about quitting the team and becoming a reserve ninja.

He shook his head and decided to focus himself on less depressing subjects. He jumped down from the tree and landed on his feet, bracing for the impact with chakra. His bones shook with the impact but he managed to stay on his feet, _this_ time. He'd been doing more and more damage to himself in an effort to both strengthen his body with the fox's chakra and to frustrate the damn beast to the point where it would call him into the seal and they could have a discussion. He knew he could just overload his brain with chakra and allow the fox to call him into the seal again, but he found when he passed out like that, all his clones would dispel. He had too many projects going to allow that.

He started off on his way to a clearing he'd been training in and he smiled as he thought about the massive progress he'd been making on pretty much every single one of his endeavours at the moment. The long range kawarimi he'd been working on to help with travelling long distances had been coming along really nicely, but he knew that he'd need something more reliable soon. Creating a chain of clones to kawarimi with worked, but it was far too chakra intensive to be of any use regularly.

He'd been working on making more durable clones by changing the balance of spiritual and physical energy he used when he'd mould the chakra needed to make a clone. After much trial and error, he'd found that creating the core of the clone and it's outer shell using the regular mixture first, then filling up the space between with as much physical energy as he could would make the clone pretty damn resilient. He found that the denser his chakra in the filling, the more punishment the clone could take, so he wanted the near concrete chakra of the bijuu inside him to be the filling for his clones. He couldn't be sure, but he believed he had something the fox would want in exchange for chakra.

He arrived in the clearing and immediately started on the circuit. First it was sprinting to each end of the clearing as fast as he could and then he'd move on to the cardio exercises. He grinned as he felt his freshly repaired muscles protest the activity, and he pushed on even harder. He was also pleased with how his little battlefield awareness technique was coming along. He had tried to incorporate what Sakura had said, about how when using genjutsu you 'infect' the other person's chakra system with your own chakra and convince their brain to see what you tell it. He wanted to try and cast an illusion, but his control wasn't nearly good enough.

Yet.

What he did find though, was that when both he and the clone were doing the brain chakra thing, he made a mental note to make up a name for it, and he tried to 'infect' their chakra system, the two systems would recognise the chakra as the same, and they would allow the two brains to be connected. That meant he'd see whatever the clone sees, same with hearing, feeling and the other senses. It wasn't anywhere near as disorienting as he thought it would be because while sending chakra to his brain like that his thought processes were happening on a near superhuman level. He was able to process things so quickly that it only took him a few minutes to really master fighting with the shared vision of a clone. He had a team of clones working on improving the number he could be 'linked up' with at any given moment.

He smiled as he thought about how his classmates would react to the new changes he'd made. He first made sure he wouldn't forget that Shino guy. He was unassuming and easy to overlook, but that's exactly what made him a good ninja. He was smart and calculating and he'd probably try to tag him with one of those bugs once he noticed the change. Naruto made a note to be on the lookout for those.

He moved on and considered what Kiba would do. It wasn't difficult to figure out that the dog loving boy would react as he always does when change comes. He'd bark at it and when that didn't work, he'd try to confirm for himself that it really wasn't any different from what he thought. Naruto figured that he'd insult him about his reading, and mock him about starting to think, and he'd also probably be ready to fight at the first opportunity to make sure the 'dead last' was still the 'dead last.'

He shook his head at the probably spot on prediction and smiled at the fact that it wasn't him anymore. He thought he'd do the boy a favour and do just what Sakura did to him. It might seem a little cruel, but it was for his own good as a shinobi right? Eh, whatever. He started to think about how a certain blonde haired fangirl would react. He snorted. ' _She wouldn't even notice. She'd be too busy filing her papers for a transfer onto our team now that Sakura-chan would be leaving._ ' He felt a pang of...something… when he thought about Sakura, but he decided to push it aside and continue with his thoughts.

He turned his mind to Shikamaru and instantly knew that he'd be dangerous. Shika would probably be watching him at every opportunity, if he could be bothered to. He'd either need to show so little change that the observant Nara boy wouldn't be bothered to spend any energy on something seemingly meaningless, or such a drastic and radical change that he wouldn't really see the point in spending all the energy required to figure out the extent of all the changes in someone who had very little effect on his life. He decided to keep his cards close to his chest on this one and make sure he always knows when he's being watched.

He thought about Chouji and how he'd take it, and he found that the the plump ninja was very accepting. If Naruto still projected himself to still be a good person at heart, then the Akimichi wouldn't change his treatment of him just because of his own change. Chouji was a person who'd been judged a lot and treated differently from everyone else, by the people outside his clan, and he knew what it was like to want to change yourself to be accepted. He wouldn't condemn Naruto for it and their relationship would probably be unchanged. Naruto nodded to himself and figured that was a logical prediction of events, and his opinion of the aspiring clan head climbed a few notches. Not many people could be so loyal and trustworthy.

He shrugged as much as he could while doing push ups and continued to the last of his classmates. He frowned though when he thought about how the pale eyed girl would react. Hinata was the only girl who didn't go nuts over Sasuke-teme. She was the only one who seemed to see nothing of value when she looked the Uchiha's way, but the thing that stood out most was the fact that she was also the only one who didn't laugh at him when he failed. He thought about how she would smile, blush and faint whenever she was too close to him. Thinking about the behaviour, he remembered that fainting in the presence of someone specific was generally a sign of nigh crippling nervousness.

That fact had come from a book in the library about 'Parenting, for Dummies,' and he was starting to doubt it's credibility. Seriously, what on earth did Hinata have to be nervous about around _him_? He nodded a little when he noticed that he _did_ recognise the smile she always had when he was around. ' _Of course I do. It's the same smile that Sakura-chan always used to wear whenever she saw the teme._ ' He blinked as his brain put all its recently acquired power to good use.

His eyes teared up as all the facts seemed to align. ' _Does...does Hinata wear….that…'_ He trailed off in his thoughts and swallowed thickly. ' _...does she smile like that for_ me _?_ ' He knew...subconsciously, he _knew_ that the facts all added up, but having been all alone for all his life, he couldn't really wrap his head around the fact that _Hyuuga Hinata, clan heir to the most prestigious clan in Konoha, the closest thing to a princess in all of Konohagakure no Sato,_ had a crush on _him. Uzumaki Naruto, village pariah, demon container...dead last._ He couldn't even wrap his head around the fact that all the facts seemed to make sense.

He couldn't even find a single fact that disproved this theory. His brain was already subconsciously running through scenario after scenario to see what the best way of dealing with this would be, but he just couldn't see such a thing being true. He couldn't think about any reason that a princess would have for liking him, but he'd already made a decision to make sure he had his facts straight before confronting the girl. He'd do right by her, if only because she'd never done wrong by him.

* * *

Kakashi watched as his current student flowed through another form of the interceptor katas. He smiled inwardly at the progress his cute little avenger was making. Kakashi had been training him in just how to use the sharingan to utterly dominate a battle. He'd told him about how he'd beat Zabuza because of his experience with it, knowing just what a person would be thinking when they come across it for the first time.

He'd known Zabuza would be trying to ascertain the limits of the powerful doujutsu so throwing in a genjutsu here and there was almost doubly effective. Zabuza wouldn't really question it much if it was at least somewhat within his perception of the realm of possibility. Zabuza had lost that first fight, not only because Kakashi was stronger, but also because he'd overestimated his opponent. Kakashi had made sure to drill that fact into Sasuke and he'd gone through the bingo book with him, trying to get him to learn how to accurately gauge an opponent's skill by the info he had.

He gave another mental smile when he thought about just how well he'd done at it. He had made quite a few errors at first, but after a while, he'd put more thought into it and he'd been able to make predictions that Kakashi was hard pressed to argue with, well, without all the first hand experience the silver haired man had. His thoughts briefly flickered to Sakura, and he wondered how she'd have done in the test. Her book smarts were second to none in the academy and he knew that she'd have done much better than the 'last' Uchiha. He felt a little disappointed at the fact that she didn't want to be a ninja anymore, but he was also glad.

It wasn't a profession that you could give anything less than your all to. He'd seen comrades who'd given even more than that and still lost their lives. He would have told her about how perfect she would be for the medic-nin program, but he knew it held no meaning for her. He'd seen her resolve and he knew that she had taken stock of her life and the hitai ate held no personal value to her, so he'd backed off. Sure it would be a shame to lose someone with such promise in both the fields of genjutsu and medical ninjutsu, but it wasn't his place to decide what she should do for her career.

On the point on his shrinking team, he felt that he also had to at least make passing mention in his mind about Naruto. That boy had been getting smarter and more observant with each passing moment. He was developing at a truly absurd rate for any ninja. In fact, Kakashi was sure the suppressed chakra that had been creeping up on his senses had been one of his clones. It had been getting more and more difficult to sense each time. The rate of his progression almost reminded him of Minato-sensei.

And that was the problem. Kakashi wasn't an idiot, he'd seen the betrayed looks he'd been getting from his student. He knew that Naruto felt like Kakashi was a terrible sensei and maybe even a traitor, hell, he knew that it was only a matter of time before the blonde couldn't stand to be around him anymore and he'd quit the team. Contrary to popular belief, Kakashi hadn't been ignoring his blonde haired student. He'd seen that the boy's predictability was sure to send him to an early grave, but he remembered how he'd felt when Minato-sensei had told him that teamwork was the most important thing.

He hadn't really believed him and he'd decided to follow his own rules regardless. It was only when Obito said it to him did it have any meaning. Kakashi knew that the lesson would mean the most coming from one of his teammates, so he left the job to them. He figured it had all worked out pretty nicely actually. The other reason he had for neglecting the jinchuuriki was his almost uncanny resemblance to his father figure.

The man Kakashi called Minato-sensei was actually the closest thing to a father sthe silver haired jonin had ever had. He'd almost felt like he'd died when he lost him just after losing the rest of his team. Seeing the orange garbed genin was like a cold reminder of everyone he'd lost. He was the spitting image of Minato-sensei, and he was pretty much Kushina-sama and Obito incarnate, and everytime he gave his pink haired teammate that shy smile he reserved only for her, Kakashi felt like he was looking at the one girl he'd give anything to have back.

Losing Rin, Obito, Minato-sensei and Kushina-sama almost all at once, then seemingly having each of them being reborn in one boy felt almost like Kami-sama herself was mocking him. The fact that his ignoring Naruto would probably make the blue eyed ninja cut himself out of Hatake's life was _just_ a happy coincidence.

He shook his head to get himself back, and then decided he might as well focus his thoughts on why he hadn't really paid much attention to the pink haired one either. Now, that one was a simple one. Having been in the system as long as he had, Kakashi knew a few things, one of those being that fangirls just didn't last in this line of work. If their team carried them through the genin test, they either got themselves killed, or they got the strawberry scented snot scared right out of them on a mission like this one and they'd just quit. Kakashi would've told her, but he'd also seen that if you did that, then they usually ended up stubborn and angry and they generally got their entire teams killed.

Kakashi shrugged. It wasn't perfect, he'd still have to deal with the brooding Uchiha, now more than ever even, but he firmly believed it was better this way. He'd probably saved Sakura's life, and he'd given Naruto one more reason to become the best there had ever been. To prove him wrong.

His visible eye widened comically as he flew forward from a thundering kick to his back. He righted himself in midair and already had his sharingan exposed to deal with the threat when he saw that it was one of the small, brown haired beggar girls they'd seen when they walked into the village. Her eyes visibly lit up and a grin too big for her face appeared on it.

For a second, her grin almost seemed predatory and she spoke in a voice stronger than her small form suggested. "Oh dear. I'm sorry, shinobi-san. I should've _said something_." She intoned, not even bothering to fake any remorse. She turned to the other occupant of the field who'd been paying rapt attention since a 'street rat' booted his sensei about halfway across the clearing. Somehow, her grin got even wider, to the point where she was almost squinting as she addressed him. "Train hard, Sasuke-chan."

He bristled at the diminutive suffix and fixed her with a red eyed stare. She giggled at his dojutsu and skipped out of the clearing. He gave chase, but when he came around the tree she'd passed by, she'd vanished. He looked back to see his sensei was still frozen in the spot he'd been in when she'd spoken to him.

Kakashi remained rooted to the spot where the clone had spoken to him. The tone she'd used when she had said those last two words were chilling enough, but what really got him was the way her eyes had flashed a deep cerulean blue with slitted pupils. ' _Was I really that deep in thought that a_ genin _could sneak up on me?_ ' His eye narrowed. ' _No. That's avoiding the real issue. The real question is...have I made a monster?_ ' The silver haired Konoha nin was even more frightened of the answer to that question.

* * *

AN: Been having trouble with the doc manager. Enjoy. Let me know what you think.


	4. Chapter 4

**AN: Wow. I am really loving the support guys. By the time I posted the last chapter, the story was already at like 500 views. As I'm writing this though, it's got about 1469 views and 44 followers. I gotta say, thanks a lot guys. I appreciate it.**

Chapter 4

After a teary goodbye at the bridge, (Inari just couldn't stand to see his prized student go.) team seven was on their way back to their home. There was a silence in the group that would've been unsettling just about two weeks ago. It wasn't exactly comfortable now, but they'd all at least slightly adjusted to the new Naruto. He still had on his jumpsuit, but somehow, even the orange on it just didn't seem as loud and ridiculous anymore.

The trip back took them a few hours. The three day journey to Wave was only at a civilian speed and hopping through the trees was much faster. Sakura had enjoyed the feeling of the wind in her hair and the weightlessness she had felt while high in the tree line. She was really glad that her last mission had gone so well, all things considered. She felt a pang at the fact that the raven haired boy among them hadn't so much as glanced at her, but she shook her head and tried to focus her thoughts on the fact that the rest of her life was still ahead of her.

She had been feeling really down recently at the fact that he seemed almost pleased by the fact that she was pretty much going to be completely cut out of his life. The part of her that was still in love with him, a much smaller part _now_ thankfully, was devastated at that fact but the logical part used it as fuel to help her get over him. She made a mental list of all the reasons she loved him, well she tried to. Most of the reasons that she came up with were all in her head. When she really looked at it, she had realised that she'd fallen in love with her dream version of Sasuke and not the flesh and blood Uchiha jumping between the trees alongside her.

That fact had done a lot to help her get over her infatuation with the boy, but it had also given her even more reason to feel guilty over her friendship with Ino. The fact that she had so callously thrown away her best friend, the one who had inspired her to have some confidence and to stand up for herself, to chase a boy who pretty much didn't really exist ate at her. She had resolved to make it up to her platinum blonde classmate and regain her trust and friendship, no matter what she had to do. As they walked into the village, she nodded to herself and prepared for what was to come.

"Well, we're home, my cute little genin." Kakashi intoned, not taking his eyes off of a small blue book in his hand. He had tired of having to deal with the Uchiha, a lot quicker than he'd expected actually, and he'd headed to the small bookstore in Wave to see if he could find _anything_ to take his mind off of the younger ninja. He'd ended up finding another batch of steamy novels written by an aspiring writer in Wave. Most of the tales were from times long past, pretty much set in the medieval ages, but the author's first one was about a lone woman in this century, and the events that led up to her finding her 'big, strong fisherman'. The character's names were Tsunade and Kaiba, but it wasn't difficult to deduce that the author was a kind hearted widow who'd showed a great deal of hospitality to him and his team.

The silver haired nin hadn't meant to confront her, but when he'd noticed the connection, he'd been unable to stop himself from giving her a look. She'd merely blushed and said that, "People don't really hire carpenters during recessions, and lonely women need hobbies too." In all his years of being a ninja and looking underneath the underneath, (and sometimes checking the underneath of the underneath's bed just in case,) he didn't really think he could be surprised by a civilian, but this one had thrown him for a loop.

The experienced jounin blinked when he realised just how far his thoughts had strayed. He discretely took stock of his surroundings, noticing that his team was waiting impatiently for him and realised that he'd probably been lost in his thoughts for longer than he thought. He cleared his throat and focused back on his book. "Let's go and make that report to Hokage-sama and then you can all have a week off from training." He turned to the bubblegum haired girl on his team and gave his traditional eye smile. "If you're sure of your decision, that is?"

The girl stole a glance at the Uchiha and replied a little somberly, "Um, yeah. I'm sure."

The older nin nodded and started making his way to the tower at a leisurely pace. There was really no need to rush, they _were_ about a month ahead of schedule after all.

* * *

A little while later in the Hokage's office

" . You're early for once." The old man chuckled as he lit his pipe, "That's a welcome change." He nodded to the team of shinobi as the last vestiges of laughter faded and continued, "Report."

After a longer than normal mission report, the Hokage nodded and opened his mouth to respond. "Team Seven, I am pleased with the way you all handled this mission. It was far above what's expected for regular genin, but you came out successful and relatively unscathed." He nodded his head in acknowledgement of their abilities, but then his eyes hardened. "That said, I am disappointed in your foresight, or lack thereof. You chose to go ahead with a mission that you knew you weren't ready for when you could've easily requested and waited for a team to come and back you up." He turned his eyes to the older nin, "Kakashi, we will be having words about your decision to let a team of genin go on what you should've known was an A ranked mission." He regained his grandfatherly posture and finished, "Now, is there anything else?"

Sakura gulped as she stepped up and untied her hitai ate, placing it softly on the Hokage's desk. She took another glance at the dark haired boy, turning back to the Hokage and nodding resolutely to him when she saw the Uchiha staring boredly out of the window. "Sir, I'd like to resign as one of your ninja. I've… I've used the experiences and the time I had on this mission to re-evaluate my life and I've found that there's nothing for me in this line of work."

He nodded a little absently, seemingly having expected this and said, "I understand. You can remain behind and I'll go through what'll be required of you."

"Hokage-sama." The grey haired man turned to the orange garbed ninja who had spoken and raised an eyebrow. He hoped that the boy didn't want to resign as well, jinchuuriki couldn't really do that and he didn't want to have to say that in front of the young boy's team. "I'd like to submit a request to become a reserve nin. I don't want to be on team 7 anymore."

The Hokage's eyes went wide at this and he turned to the team's sensei, but when his eyes landed on him, they narrowed dangerously. He'd been dealing with ninja long before any of these four were even born, and in their line of work, you had to always be aware of what was going on in everyone else's heads. He could tell that the two sharingan wielders in the room were both pretty much one note from breaking into a happy dance right in his office. Only their stoic personalities kept them from displaying a little more than surprise at the timing.

Sakura, however, openly gaped at the blonde in question. "Naruto… Um, are you sure? I thought you liked being on team 7."

"I liked being on a team with you, Sakura-chan. The teme and the cyclops just don't do it for me." She blushed at his words and noticed that another thing she'd miss would be the attention he always gave her.

"Very well. You can stay behind and fill out the paperwork." Hiruzen wasn't really sure what had brought on the sudden change in the child but he could see that there had been one, and a pretty massive one at that. He'd easily seen through the lie that the pink haired girl was the blonde's reason for his request, but he couldn't come up with the real one. He decided to allow things to progress naturally and see what would happen.

* * *

A few hours later, Naruto and Sakura walked out of the tall tower, feeling much better about the direction their lives were going in. "Come on, Sakura-chan." The blonde intoned, taking her by the hand and leading her down the street. "I know where everyone is and you wanna tell them all now right?"

She raised an eyebrow at the contact but replied, "Yeah. Let's go." She felt a familiar sense of vertigo as he used the long range kawarimi to move them to team ten's position. He hadn't used it with her before, but she'd felt the effect of the regular kawarimi, she didn't really need three guesses to figure out what the blonde had done.

Sakura bent at the waist and took her time to allow her head to stop spinning. She felt her urge to yell at him about using her as a test subject warring with her urge to keep down her last meal. "Uh huh. The chakra draw of that isn't as high as I thought. It doesn't double when you carry more people, but when you carry more objects, it does. I'll have to look into that." She heard the blonde next to her mutter to himself. He then shouted, "Hey Ino, Shikamaru, Chouji. Get over here, guys."

"Naruto?" The blonde kunoichi muttered. Her eyes lit up when she saw Sakura though and she started to walk over as she said, "Forehead, you're back. What took you guys so long?" She reached them and looked around, continuing without even giving her the time to respond. "Where's Sasuke-kun?"

"Sasuke's training." The former members of team 7 didn't miss the way the blonde's eyes widened at Sakura's response. The rest of team ten finally reached them as she replied, her eyes softening as she spoke.

"Forehead… are you over Sasuke-kun?" She looked her former best friend up and down and her eyes narrowed slightly,"Where's your hitai ate?" He eyes widened. "You quit, didn't you?" Her eyes glistened with unshed tears. "You're not on team seven anymore, you're not even a ninja now, are you?" She asked, already knowing the answer.

The pink haired girl nodded and her eyes were also wet as she saw just how her former friend reacted. "Um, yeah. I...I really thought about it and… and he isn't the boy I thought he was, Ino." The platinum blonde in question seemed to light up at the words and sprang forward, taking the pink haired civilian by surprise as she pulled her into a hug.

"Man, I'm so glad, Forehead-chan. Thank Kami-sama you're back." She said, her words only a whisper but clearly audible to the boys standing awkwardly nearby. All of the surrounding eyebrows shot to their respective hairlines in surprise at the unexpected response and the boys glanced at each other to see if anyone else had made sense of it.

"Ino, what-" Sakura's surprised response was stopped by Ino pulling back and shaking her head fondly at her.

"Don't you get it, Forehead?" She questioned, and smiled a little at Sakura's surprised face. "I never really loved Sasuke, I just really missed you and I wanted some way to still spend some time with you when you fell for him. Now come on," She took the other girl by the hand and started to lead her away from the training ground, "we've got paperwork to fill, and a _lot_ of catching up to do." Sakura smiled and nodded as she started to walk with her best friend and although the clan heir seemed to have forgiven her, Sakura resolved to make it up to the blonde and be a better friend to her.

"Wait, Ino. You're not quitting the shinobi korps too, are you?" Chouji questioned, a little worry showing on his face. He was glad that the two girls had made up and they were friends again, but he didn't want to lose the blonde as a teammate, especially when there were so many worse people out there to replace her.

She looked over her shoulder at him and kept walking away as she responded. "Of course not, Chouji, my dad would kill me." He sighed in relief and Shikamaru inclined his head. "I'm gonna become a reserve ninja so I can learn all the stuff I'll need to know as a clan head." The two boys' hopes were crushed. "And I'm also gonna need to learn a lot of our clan techniques from my dad. Yamanakas generally serve in the T&I department so it was gonna happen anyway." She turned back around and continued low enough for only Sakura to hear, "Plus, I'll be in the village a lot more, and we have a _lot_ of catching up to do."

The girl next to her nodded and giggled as she turned back to the boys they'd left behind. "Bye guys. Naruto, you'll tell the other team for me, won't you?" The boy in question nodded absently, his eyes unfocused as he stared at the girls disappearing into the distance. As the girls walked out of sight from the clearing, Naruto's brow furrowed at the events that he'd just witnessed. He knew that even if he'd been given a million years to figure it out, he'd never have predicted such an outcome. He shook his head and took comfort in the fact that Shikamaru seemed just as surprised by the reaction as he'd been. He decided that he couldn't always rely on his anticipation of events to be the right one and he'd still need to make sure he was ready for all eventualities. He smiled as he thought about how his vocabulary was increasing at a fantastic rate. He decided to spend some time with the remaining members of team ten and at least see if his other predictions were correct.

* * *

About an hour later he smiled as he walked out of the training ground as he saw a certain avenger fuming to himself as he walked in. The smile dropped off his face when he saw the silver haired jounin following after him, nose buried in one of those small, blue books of his. He knew the reason for their presence of course. He didn't yet have all his 'refugees' in position yet, so for the meantime, he'd taken to leaving 'little birdies', 'flies on the walls' and a whole bunch of other inconspicuous cups, badges, posters and other items that would be his eyes and ears for the time being.

He smiled once more as he started off on the way to team eight's training ground. He knew that the Uchiha had been looking forward to becoming the cyclops' apprentice, but apparently, the jounin himself wasn't so keen on the prospect. He had spent about two weeks in Wave pretty much as Sasuke's shishou, and he knew that he couldn't take that for any longer than he had to. After he'd been chewed out by the Hokage, a memory that Naruto derived a great deal of pleasure from, he had made his case. He told the Hokage about how lazy his son was as a sensei and how badly matched he was with the kids on his team.

Asuma was guilty of the same crime Kakashi was, which was lazing around while allowing their students to do their own thing and calling it 'team training.' Of course, no one was as bad as Hatake, and Asuma actually got involved in their training, but Kakashi had said that the proof is in the pudding. He'd said that his own students had improved much more than Asuma's had and that the two of them would probably wipe the floor with the smoker's whole team. Naruto grudgingly admitted that he had to give the man credit for that one. It was true, even though pretty much none of his own growth was due to his sensei.

Kakashi then stated how much better he would be at training the kids, as he knew that being the only other sharingan user he'd have no choice in whether or not he would train Sasuke, he made sure that he wouldn't have to train alone with the revenge obsessed boy. He talked about how he had more experience than the bearded jounin, and that fact would make him a much more helpful shogi partner for the Nara clan heir, and he'd be a lot better at helping the lazy boy train his skills in tactics. He'd also cited the fact that Asuma had been one of the twelve guardians of the Dayimo for the past years and he wouldn't have as intimate a knowledge base about how Akimichi clan members fight now and how their jutsus work. Kakashi said his experience with the clan would allow him to better guide the chubby boy in his growth as a ninja. He had stated the same point for the Yamanaka but Naruto knew that that was irrelevant now. Naturally though, the blonde boy's interest was piqued, and he was curious to know just what the whole guardian thing was about.

The funniest thing was that the Hokage _knew_. He'd seen through all of the copy nin's bull and he _knew_ that the man just didn't want to be alone with the raven haired genin for any length of time. He wanted to reject the proposal outright, but dealing with matters concerning clans and their heirs had a whole lot of politics involved. He knew that Kakashi was skilled enough to start dropping hints to the clan heads if he didn't get his way, but like in all politics, 'it's not what you know, but what you can prove in court' so to speak. The old man knew that he couldn't disprove any of what Kakashi was saying, and if it came down to it, then all the clan heads would start to question his judgement about Kakashi's 'incompetence' when the results would be clearly visible in the forms of the avenger and the jinchuuriki. He had let the request pass and now Hatake Kakashi was the proud sensei of team ten. Naruto would've loved to be there to see the fireworks fly between him and the younger Sarutobi, but he had to go and deliver the news to team eight.

He nodded as he arrived in the training ground. He stopped though as he just received the memories of handing over the massive sword Zabuza used to carry to a bounty office somewhere in fire country. The sword itself had a strange icicle keychain type thing on it at the time, but because it was the original the bounty officer didn't really question it. He nodded to himself, pleased with the fact that his clone had asked for the money to be deposited in his account and he'd dispelled himself to let the original know. He shook himself of these thought and he pondered the consequences of his actions. Thanks to the sailors in Wave, who gossip just as much, if not just more colourfully than the housewives of the same area, he knew that Kiri was currently locked in a civil war. He doubted that they'd be curious enough about a Konoha genin claiming an A ranked bounty to actually send a team for the upcoming chunin exams, but he didn't discount it completely. He knew that he'd been wrong before and he decided it was probably best to be prepared, just in case.

He arrived where team eight was having a discussion. It seemed as if they had just finished up their team training for the day and were about to part ways when he arrived. Kiba openly showed his surprise at the blonde's presence and so did their sensei but Hinata just blushed and Shino showed no visible reaction. The blonde couldn't really tell whether or not he had an eyebrow raised behind those dark glasses of his.

He opened his mouth to speak and a little while later he was feeling a lot better about himself. Shino and Kiba had reacted to both his news and the change in his personality just as he thought they would. Honestly, he'd been feeling a lot of self doubt at the way he'd been so sure about a certain fellow blonde's reaction and Ino had so utterly shocked him. He'd been proud of his progress and the taller blonde's reaction had really sapped a lot of that confidence. At the moment though, he couldn't be happier as the reactions of the team before him let him know that he wasn't completely wasting his time in his attempt to be smarter.

He decided to let them find out about the whole team ten situation on their own. No sense in disturbing the peace for info that they were going to get later anyway. Besides, he had bigger fish to fry.

He nodded to the other members of the team before turning to the lavender eyed one among them. "Hinata-chan." She eeped and gave him a small nod as she reddened at his attention and he knew he'd picked the right approach. "Can I walk you home?" The girl's eyes widened and she just managed to give him another nod, this one firmer and more deliberate. It seemed as though she didn't really trust herself to speak at the moment, and that fact only made him more certain of his decision to take it slow.

Her sensei seemed to be shocked by his question and torn between smiling and frowning, but Kiba wasn't nearly as subtle with his opinion. He stared down at the orange garbed ninja and actually started to _growl_ at him, well, until he received a smack on the back of his head from his sensei. His behaviour seemed to settle hers, and she gave the blonde genin an apologetic smile.

"Kiba-san." The long coated boy intoned, pulling everyone's attention to him. "I do believe you should be immensely grateful for this exceedingly fortuitous occurrence." He received a chorus of raised eyebrows and he continued, resettling his glasses on the bridge of his nose. "Why, you ask? Because a few short months ago, Kiba-san informed me that he would have been more than happy to enter into an agreement with me in which he would make a wager for which the odds seemed almost impossibly skewed in his favour." He nodded to himself as if what he was saying was all too obvious. "Of course, I declined to be included in such a practice that belittled the intellect and observance of a fellow Konoha nin, but now I am utterly undecided about how to most accurately describe the emotion I am currently feeling." He paused for a second and everyone took that time to adjust to the fact that the stoic boy actually _had_ emotions. "Yes, I do believe it is most commonly referred to as regret."

The rest of team eight understood, having had about two months to get used tho the Aburame's uncommon speech patterns. Naruto also understood and nodded to the Aburame clan heir, "That's not really surprising, Shino, but I gotta say, you'll be an excellent ninja someday." He reached into one of the folds of his jumpsuits and pulled out a small kikaichu, being very careful not to injure it. "You planted this little guy on me to make sure Hinata-chan would be safe and covered it up by drawing all the attention to yourself." He gingerly released the bug and watched as it buzzed back into the coat it emerged from. "But, like you said." He gestured with his arms, "We're all fellow Konoha ninja, all under one Hokage, and I would never do anything to hurt Hinata-chan." He glanced at the girl in question and seeing that she was well away from unconsciousness, decided to lay it on a little thicker. "In fact, I'd even say that I'd give my life to protect her."

 _All_ of the Hyuuga princess' blood flooded her cheeks and the poor girl was only barely clinging onto consciousness at the declaration. Naruto knew that he'd gotten lucky that he'd been able to spin Shino's actions like that and he felt a little like thanking the boy. He'd put him about three days ahead of schedule by making him blurt out a little bit about just how important the pale eyed girl had become to him. He knew that he'd never be able to get a word in between her passing out and shy stuttering, so he'd devised a plan. A certain Inuzuka boy was liable to get hurt in the process, but it was all in the name of love, so it was all good right? Eh, whatever. Naruto planned to ease himself into the shy Hyuuga princesses life as naturally as possible without taking years to do it, while still trying to make her more and more comfortable in his presence. He planned to have the air between them about her feelings, (and maybe even his own), clear by the time the preparations for the chunin exams would be in full swing about a month from now, actually. He smiled at the fact that his eagerness to come home and raid the shinobi library had actually helped a lot of things. He was going to have just enough time to develop his relationship with Hinata before the chunin exams.

The tallest boy in the clearing nodded his acquiescence and then started off on his way back to his clan compound. The Inuzuka was spurred into motion by the red eyed jounin in the team and she herself gave them a smile over her shoulder as she walked away. He turned to the girl of the hour, who was now only 'glowing' and not 'nearly nuclear' like she was mere moments ago. "Come on, Hinata-chan." When they walked to her home together that night, both of them felt that even though the day totally hadn't gone as they'd expected, it was the best day they'd each had in a long time.

* * *

Haruno residence.

Sakura had spent the day hanging out with her old best friend and catching up on all the things that'd happened since they became true shinobi. The blonde had told her about a few of their missions, but she'd mostly complained about just how much of a drag it'd been to be on a team with a lazy ass, a fat ass, and their lazy ass sensei. The Haruno had told Ino about the mission that she'd just returned from, and then they'd just spent the rest of the day filing Ino's paperwork and hanging out. Sakura found that she missed the girl time she was enjoying now and she felt like nothing bad could happen today...until now.

"Oh, Sakura-chan! I'm so glad. You don't even know how happy this decision makes me." Her father told her dramatically, clinging onto her with crocodile tears running down his cheeks for extra effect.

"Ah, ah, ah, Kizashi-kun. You're not gonna get out of this so easily." The pinkett's mother responded, a devious smirk on her face as she placed her hands on her hips demandingly. "Pay up." Sakura's eyebrow twitched at her parent's actions. She'd just told them about the major decision she'd just made and she couldn't really fathom how they were acting. They had actually _bet_ on how long it would take for her to quit?

Haruno Kizashi's lower lip twitched exaggeratedly. "M...Mebuki-chan, do I have to do it _now?"_ He sprang up from his position and rounded around the pink haired girl, turning her to face her mom and squishing her face between his hands in hopes of swaying her. "I mean, in front of our sweet little cherry blossom?"

Mebuki's smirk widened and she nodded almost sadistically. "Oh, yes. I think it's about time she knows how things are _really_ run around here." The former kunoichi's father sighed loudly and fell to his knees. He looked his daughter in the face and seemed as if he was trying to find the right words to show just how sorry he was in advance. He turned back to his waiting wife and spoke.

* * *

Sakura rolled her teal eyes at her reflection as she brushed her teeth. ' _Man. My parents are just so_ weird.' She couldn't stop herself from thinking those thoughts when her father had said some embarassing pledge about how 'Mebuki-tenshi-sama' is always right, among other much more disturbing things.

She spit the foam out into the sink and started to rinse. ' _Of course I_ knew _that it was all just a joke, but seriously.'_ She finished rinsing her mouth out and grinned toothily at her reflection, inspecting her handywork. The grin faded a little though as it reminded her of the high school student card photo she had to take today.

She slipped her toothbrush back into the storage cup on the shelf. She took one last look at herself in the mirror and walked off into her room. She smiled a little at the thought that she had been right. The Hokage had let her know that as a civilian, she was now considered a child and she no longer had the freedom she'd experienced as a ninja. She didn't really mind because she hadn't really done anything that required 'adult clearance' like drinking or the slightly more carnal activities. ' _If there's anything I'll miss, it'd be the ability to leave the village without a letter of consent.'_

She flipped a switch and thrust the room into darkness as she slipped into her blankets. ' _Ahh, I'm so glad that I'll be sleeping in my own bed every day from now on.'_ She shuffled around under the covers until she was in a familiar, comfortable position.

' _I really can't wait to get to the school tomorrow.'_ The pink haired girl was soon asleep with a contented smile on her face.

* * *

Yamanaka Inoichi smiled softly as he lay in bed staring up unseeingly at the ceiling. His wife was cuddled into his side and she'd nodded off a few minutes ago, but he couldn't seem to get any rest. It wasn't worry depriving him of sleep though, it was happiness. His smile widened a little and his lips twitched, itching for it to become a full blown grin. Inwardly he knew that he was acting like a schoolgirl, but he found that that fact didn't really bother him.

His little princess had finally decided that she wanted to take all his teachings about becoming a clan head more seriously, and he couldn't be more proud. He knew, of course, that it was mainly in an effort to have more time with her old best friend, but he also knew that she understood the importance of her role as clan heir. He knew her well enough to be sure that she'd dedicate herself completely to this training.

He chuckled inwardly at another part of this that made him happy. He was quite glad that she wasn't on team ten anymore. He had nothing against the other two boys, but as an experienced shinobi, he knew it was only about one in a million shinobi who spent day after day and countless more life threatening encounters with a teammate and _didn't_ end up falling in love with them. It wasn't that he felt the other clan heirs weren't good enough for his little girl, ' _but to be frank, they just aren't'_ , but the fact that they were clan heirs. Each of the three teammates would need to find someone able and willing to leave their home, their family and even their name as nothing more than a distant memory to be with them, and Ino-hime, being a clan heir herself, could never do that.

He knew that if they'd ever dated, they'd have to break up, probably against their will, and he didn't want his little girl to go through that kind of pain. Above all, he didn't want to be the wedge that would be used to drive the two teammates turned lovers apart.

 **AN: Well, That's chapter 4, i guess. I'm not really happy with the way it came out but I don't wanna leave anyone waiting for too long. The story's now on 1984 views and 53 followers. 21 favourites. I really appreciate the support guys, and I promise the next chapter will be better.**

 **Also, I threw in a quote from the excellent flick, Law Abiding Citizen. I loved it all the way through, but I gotta say, I wasn't too fond of the ending. I promise a digi-cookie to the first person who can name the quote.**

 **Later.**

 **Update (Wed 13 Jul): Thanks, guest reviewer 'Anon', for taking the time to really look at the story and letting me know my error. I fixed the whole team ten-eight thing. I did a whole long authors note addressing the other guest review that I got but it got lost in the interwebs. I really can't be bothered to rewrite it at the moment. I'll do that at a later date.**


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